Talk:Sperm whale

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 31 August 2020 and 10 December 2020. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Cemacquarrie. Peer reviewers: BrookeBarlow, Chansel11.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 09:59, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Cerebrum size: largest in relative terms?
i assume this means vs body size and that is almost certainly false given how small the brain itself is relative to whale body size.

Inaccuracy in the "Diet" subsection; with documentation
This is my first time contributing to Wikipedia so I apologize in advance for any mistakes I may make here.

I just wanted to bring to attention that I have found documentation contrary to a statement made in the "Diet" section of this wiki, specifically "Battles between sperm whales and giant squid or colossal squid have never been observed by humans; however, white scars are believed to be caused by the large squid."

If you will refer to the text on pg 143-144 of the book "The Cruise of the Cachalot" (free Google book, link below) you will find a quite detailed first-hand account of battle between a sperm whale and giant squid which was witnessed by the author from onboard a whaling ship in the late 1800's.

https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Cruise_of_the_Cachalot/0OALAQAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA142&printsec=frontcover — Preceding unsigned comment added by LoonaStan2022 (talk • contribs) 07:08, 3 March 2022 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 3 March 2022
This is my first time contributing to Wikipedia so I apologize in advance for any mistakes I may make here.

I just wanted to bring to attention that I have found documentation contrary to a statement made in the "Diet" section of this wiki, specifically "Battles between sperm whales and giant squid or colossal squid have never been observed by humans; however, white scars are believed to be caused by the large squid."

If you will refer to the text on pg 143-144 of the book "The Cruise of the Cachalot" by Frank Thomas Bullen (free Google book, link below) you will find a quite detailed first-hand account of battle between a sperm whale and giant squid which was witnessed by the author from onboard a whaling ship in the late 1800's.

As an edit I would suggest changing the sentence "Battles between sperm whales and giant squid or colossal squid have never been observed by humans; however, white scars are believed to be caused by the large squid." to reflect the above referenced account of exactly such a battle by Mr. Bullen. Wording could perhaps be changed to something along the lines of "Battles between sperm whales and giant squid or colossal squid have only been observed once by a sailor on a whaling vessel...." along with a footnote to the book.

https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Cruise_of_the_Cachalot/0OALAQAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA142&printsec=frontcover LoonaStan2022 (talk) 07:19, 3 March 2022 (UTC)
 * Red information icon with gradient background.svg Not done for now: please establish a consensus for this alteration before using the template. That book is only semi-autobiographical, and there is no way for us to know if this was a fictionalized element. I would say that, in context, it appears fictionalized. He describes no one else on the crew being interested in the event, as if it were common despite there being no other reliable accounts of such events. ScottishFinnishRadish (talk) 12:49, 3 March 2022 (UTC)

Repaired Reference
Citation #168 is currently tagged as [permanent dead link]. A working URL is as follows:

https://www.fao.org/3/x9293e/x9293e00.pdf

The current citation lists "pp. 74-78". The correct page # is 77.

The page is protected, so I cannot fix it myself. 2600:1011:B017:6674:8B70:B66A:38A9:C349 (talk) 05:05, 6 April 2023 (UTC)


 * It may be worth mentioning that the source says the shark was being "POSSIBLY harassed or played with", whereas the wiki article uses more definitive language: the whales "WERE observed attacking or playing with". 2600:1011:B017:6674:8B70:B66A:38A9:C349 (talk) 05:09, 6 April 2023 (UTC)